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New Light in the New World
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Beginning with Genesis, reading verse by verse, when he found
anything obscure it was his custom to compare it with every other
text which seemed to refer to the matter under consideration. Every
word was permitted to have its bearing upon the text. Thus whenever
he met with a passage hard to be understood he found an explanation
in some other portion of the Scriptures. He studied with earnest
prayer for divine enlightenment, and he experienced the truth of the
psalmist’s words: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth
understanding unto the simple.”
Psalm 119:130
.
With intense interest he studied Daniel and the Revelation and
found that the prophetic symbols could be understood. He saw
that all the various figures, metaphors, similitudes, etc., were either
explained in their immediate connection or defined in other scriptures
and were to be literally understood. Link after link of the chain of
truth rewarded his efforts. Step by step he traced the great lines of
prophecy. Angels of heaven were guiding his mind.
He became satisfied that the popular view of a temporal millen-
nium before the end of the world was not sustained by the Word of
God. This doctrine, pointing to a thousand years of peace before
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the coming of the Lord, is contrary to the teachings of Christ and
His apostles, who declared that the wheat and the tares are to grow
together until the harvest, the end of the world, and that “evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse.”
2 Timothy 3:13
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Personal Coming of Christ
The doctrine of the world’s conversion and the spiritual reign
of Christ was not held by the apostolic church. It was not generally
accepted by Christians until about the beginning of the eighteenth
century. It taught men to look far in the future for the coming of the
Lord and prevented them from giving heed to the signs heralding
His approach. It led many to neglect preparation to meet their Lord.
Miller found the literal, personal coming of Christ plainly taught
in Scripture. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.”
“They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory.” “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and
shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of